At the end of June , with South Texas temperatures skyrocketing, a breeze blew across patrons at the Back Porch Bar in Port Aransas. Still, ice in cocktails melted quickly, and brows were mopped with bandannas.

Heat did not stop Joe King Carrasco from leaving the stage, playing his Fender Telecaster guitar atop tables and dancing with the assembled fans while one of the best rhythm sections in the world, drummer Ernie “Murphy” Durawa and bassist Speedy Sparks, laid down the most-solid of Tex-Mex grooves.

“How old is he, anyway?” a tourist asked. “He acts like he's 16.”

He has the energy of a teen, but he's no kid.

“I'm 59,” said Carrasco via cellphone while running some sort of JKC merchandise errand. “The day I can't do that kind of show won't be a good day. I have paid the price for all the stage dives I've done. I have started working out. I live right by a gym in Mexico and I surf every day.”

Carrasco, born Joseph Charles Teutsch in Dumas, splits time between Mexico and Texas. He lives much of the year in El Pitillal, a suburban area of Puerto Vallarta. Carrasco is a partner in a Puerto Vallarta restaurant and bar, Nacho Daddy, where he performs Thursdays and Saturdays when he's in town.

Carrasco is crisscrossing Texas, celebrating the release of a new CD, Joe King Carrasco y El Molino's “Tlaquepaque” (Anaconda). The disc reunites Carrasco with Durawa and Sparks, the foundation of the classic El Molino band. Staffed by San Antonio legends including sax man Rocky Morales, trumpeter Charlie McBurney, drummer/percussionist Richard “Eh Eh” Elizondo and keyboard player Sauce Gonzalez plus guitarist Ike Ritter, El Molino and Carrasco in the late '70s recorded the album “Tex-Mex Rock-Roll” and songs such as “Jalapeno con Big Red,” “Mezcal Road,” “Tell Me” and “Rock Esta Noche,” as well as swamp pop/West Side R&B standards including “I'm a Fool to Care” and “Please Mr. Sandman.”

“Last summer me and Ernie were sittin' around eating and said, 'Hey, let's record live in front of an audience at Roadhouse Rags (a South Austin vintage clothing store that books live music and has in-house recording gear). We recorded two albums worth of songs in four days,” Carrasco said in his near-patented rapid-fire fashion. “I've never recorded that way with people watching and listening. That puts a little different face on things.”

“Tlaquepaque” includes new songs and older Carrasco songs that run the rhythmic gamut from cumbia and cha-cha to Carrasco's “Nuevo Wavo.” He reprises “Buena” and “Tell Me.” The disc also includes “Ayudame Lupe,” a plea to the Virgin of Guadalupe; “Anna,” named in honor of the matriarch of his Jack Russell terrier brood; the title track, about the suburb of Guadalajara that's mariachi headquarters; and the fun tunes “Mas Mas” and “Donna Do Ya Wanna.”

“I'm always studying something new,” he said. “I'm always studying slang, and if I can match the slang up with a song it's a good thing. I'm always looking for the next '96 Tears,' 'Wooly Bully' and 'She's About a Mover.' Some of these songs have been around since the '70s. I'd bring half-finished songs to the guys and then I'd have to finish them.

“I work better under pressure. My goal is to finish all my songs from the '70s. I'm really ADD. I carry a cassette player around with to record all the songs. The good thing about cassettes is you can't hit 'delete.'”

The combination of Carrasco, San Antonio-bred drummer Durawa and Houston-bred bassist Sparks, also the Texas Tornados rhythm section, is powerful.

“Those guys were with me when I recorded 'Tell Me' and 'Mezcal Road' at ZAZ Studios in San Antonio on Aug. 16, 1976. We went in at 2 p.m. and came out at 2 a.m. Most of the other guys aren't around anymore,” Carrasco said.

“Speedy is a purist when it comes to rock 'n' roll and the triplets. If you pass the Speedy test you've done real good. Ernie is a strong drummer. He can play cha-chas, rumbas, cumbias, polkas, rock 'n' roll, everything.”

Carrasco has no plans to slow his rock 'n' roll any time soon.

“I like doing it. It's fun to do and it's the only thing I know,” he said. “Look at Sunny Ozuna and Flaco Jimenez, they're still doing it.”

And Carrasco has no immediate plans to slow his border-hopping.

“I don't know anybody else who does what I do. I'm back and forth constantly,” he said. “I always wear my Virgin of Guadalupe T-shirt when I travel through checkpoints. The violence has backed off with the new president of Mexico. It's not as intense as it was.”